Governor Christie: My parents decided to adopt because they wanted to add to our family, and it gave me the ability to have a sister in my life for now the last 39 years, and it’s important that we don’t diminish the joy felt by families experiencing adoption. I want them to have that opportunity and I also want the young woman who makes the decision to give up her child to be protected as well. So we’re bringing all that together today through the signing that we just experienced. We’re bringing forth the needed changes and the safeguards that will protect the privacy of the woman who offers her child for adoption if she so desires that privacy and ensures that we allow the child and his or her adoptive parents to have access to medical information and other information later on to help them care for their own health and the health of their family. As a result of the legislation that I just signed New Jersey is bringing a new open approach to adoption and birth records by removing the lengthy and burdensome requirement of obtaining a court order in order for adopted children and adoptive parents to access those birth records, and by preserving privacy options for birth parents by allowing them to select a preference for contact, either direct contact or contact through a confidential intermediary or access to medical records only with continued privacy. Now these changes achieve our intended goals of protecting and respecting the interests of all of the people involved in the adoption process while at the same time making sure that the miracle of adoption, the miracle that was experienced by my own family and is still being experienced by us today is available to as many people in New Jersey who have an open heart and a willingness to share their home and their lives with a new member of the family.

People who were adopted in New Jersey would get access to their birth records – or, if their birth parents object, to their birth family’s medical history — under a bill heading to Gov. Chris Christie’s desk after a 34-year effort to enact such…